The Pacific Collection of the Barr Smith Library at the University of Adelaide is a collection of national significance for research on the islands of Melanesia, Polynesia and, in particular, Micronesia. It is based on the rich and comprehensive library accumulated over 65 years by Professor H.E. Maude, a former British colonial administrator in the Pacific and Professor of Pacific History at the Australian National University, and his wife and fellow researcher, Honor Maude. The Pacific Islands Library was purchased by the Barr Smith Library in 1972 and while the largest part of it was deposited between May 1972 and April 1973, further items were added by the Maudes to August 1995, including new books purchased by them, journals to which they subscribed and the important Gilbert and Ellice Islands material retained in Canberra while they completed their series of books on the I-Kiribati. As now received, it comprises some 4 000 monograph titles, more than 120 journal titles (of which a third are extensive runs) and over 1 000 pamphlet publications.